LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

In terms of shape and design, this imposing vessel belongs to a small group of late Shang zun which features two lower registers of taotie and animal designs in low relief while the neck and flaring mouth are devoid of decoration and flanges except for the double bow-string bands just above the midsection. Another zun of this general type, but cast with taotie masks on the splayed foot rather than pairs of confronted birds such as those seen on the current example, is illustrated by S.D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 1997, p. 70, no. 14. Another related zun is illustrated by J.K. Murray, A Decade of Discovery: Selected Acquisitions, 1970-1980, The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 6, where it is dated to the Shang dynasty, late Anyang period, based on a similar vessel excavated at Cangshan, Xi'an, Shandong province and illustrated in Wenwu, 1965:7, p. 30, fig. 13.